PODGORICA (Montenegro), November 21 (SeeNews) – Montenegro has opened a tender to award concessions for the exploration of 43 sites and the subsequent construction of hydropower plants, the Economic Development Ministry said.
Each small hydropower plant should have an installed capacity of up to 10 megawatts, the ministry said in a tender invitation.
“We can expect electricity generation to start in some four to five years after the contract is signed,” Blagota Novosel, tender adviser with the ministry and chief state electricity inspector, told SeeNews.
The binding bids for the the design, build, operate and transfer (DBOT) concession should be submitted by February 1.
“We have only preliminary expectations for a total capacity of some 60 megawatts, which makes production of some 150 million kilowatt hours annually,” Novosel said. Montenegro's goal is to increase the share of electricity generated by small hydropower plants to 2.5% of total production by 2015.
Currently, small hydropower plants account for 1.0% of the country's total power production, Novosel said.
Montenegro has nine small hydropower plants, which have a total capacity of seven to eight megawatts and generate some 200 million kilowatt hours annually.
There are two big hydropower plants in the country, Perucica and Piva, which have a combined capacity of 650 megawatts and generate some two billion kilowatt hours annually. “We also have a thermal power station, which produces a billion [kilowatt hours annually], while we annually import some 1.2 billion [kilowatt hours] ,” Novosel said.
Montenegro's power consumption exceeds four billion kilowatt hours annually.